Jacob Murphy admits Newcastle players targetted David de Gea and his goal kicks

Newcastle United's Jacob Murphy has revealed that David de Gea gave his side confidence they could beat Manchester United.

De Gea's contribution has come under intense scrutiny this season, with Erik ten Hag forced to defend his goalkeeper.

The Spanish stopper continued to look shaky when distributing the ball in last Sunday's 2-0 defeat at St. James' Park.

And Murphy, who starred in his team's victory, has explained how Newcastle took advantage of his goal kicks.

He told Rio Ferdinand he could 'sense' they were going to have a good game based on De Gea's goal kicks.

"Their first goal kick, De Gea was taking a while," he said. "This is a bit unusual; he was taking his time with it, he was asking everyone to go up field, then hit long.

"They were just taking a while, lots of pointing, I could sense from that, we were going to have a good game from there."

Second-half goals from Joe Willock and Callum Wilson secured a big over Man United as they move level on points with them in the table.

They're both on 50 points, with Eddie Howe's team above Ten Hag's side on goal difference. They currently occupy third place, ahead of Tottenham and Man United.

Murphy's damning assessment of De Gea's distribution was also echoed by Alan Shearer, who voiced his concerns on Match of the Day 2.

"You've got to be brave," he said.

"He's not comfortable, there's no way that David de Gea's comfortable doing that, he doesn't want to do that. Teams are quite happy to let him have the ball because they understand that's a problem for Manchester United."

Shearer also pinpointed the absence of Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, adding: "Because they didn't have Casemiro, because they didn't have [Christian] Eriksen, players who can get the ball when they're under pressure and then start the play, then they really suffered for that."